No matter whether specific to men or women, prior to blade shaving it is generally necessary to apply to the skin surface a lubricating and softening agent (eventual problem shaving). The flat application of thin coatings of such cosmetic (optionally pharmaceutical) preparations to the skin is normally performed manually or by a spraying process. A good dosing and a very regular distribution is difficult. It is unavoidable that part of the expensive preparation to be applied will be left behind on the applying hand. In addition to not solving the application problem, spray cans are now no longer desired due to contamination of the environment. Moreover, hygienic problems exist with the known blade shaving procedure.
Thus, e.g., combined preparations for the treatment of body hair prior to shaving and the freshly shaved skin after shaving have been developed and constantly improved by the cosmetics industry. Such preparations are distributed on the skin usually by hand in the form of a liquid, cream or foam prior to shaving. This involves an operation prior to shaving and a highly desired, sparing dosing is not possible. This is particularly a disadvantage when using more recent preparations, which are so effective that even very small quantities, e.g., 150 to 250 mg are completely sufficient for shaving. It is scarcely possible to regularly distribute by hand such a small quantity.
Means have already been developed which make it possible to automatically distribute on the skin during shaving such skin preparations. However, these means are exclusively directed at male-specific shaving. For example, U.S Pat. Nos. 4,074,429; 4,381,293; and 4,562,644 propose applying to the razor or shaver head in solid form a skin preparation in such a way that it is drawn over the skin during shaving in front of the blade or blades and a thin film of the preparation is rubbed onto the skin. However, during use the solid preparation changes shape and its position has to be frequently changed with respect to the blade. In addition, as stated, the preparation must have a solid consistency in order to maintain its shape.
It has also been proposed to apply liquid or foam preparations with sponge material parts fixed to the shaver head (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,895,437 and 4,314,404) or to use corresponding rubber rolls (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,677,883 and 2,861,338). However, it is still difficult with such means to apply a regular film of the product to the skin. Thus, no fresh fluid is supplied and instead in a form of recycling the in part consumed fluid is reused. After shaving the remainder of the preparation is rinsed away together with the used preparation. The main function of such means is to avoid a treatment process preceding the actual shaving process. Thus, they are not dosing/applying means and the hygienic problem remains unsolved.
All these means suffer from the lack of a correct interaction between the shaving preparation, its supply to the razor and the blade part. The mere addition of a random portion of the preparation during shaving is inadequate, particularly if additional mechanisms for this purpose are used on existing razors. For the correct interaction it is necessary to have a completely new shaver with matched functional parts.